50 best Action movies list -Read the list and watch the films

Now, without further ado, grab some popcorn, sit back, and dim the lights. The show’s about to start.

Methodology: like our books piece, the selections for our Definitive Men’s Movie Collection represent our favorites, “considered in the light of how much they changed our lives, and might change yours.” If it makes you feel any better that your favorite flick didn’t make the cut, consider that one of our auditors, in a moment of weakness, tried to get Nick Cage’s Ghostrider on the docket. Taste is subjective, so take this for what it’s worth.

13 Assassins A group of assassins must venture out on a suicide mission to kill a truly evil Japanese lord. The movie is full of courage, humanity, great fight scenes and quite possibly one of the worst villains in cinematic history. Sharp blades, pony tails, action sandals and a lot of yelling round out one of the best period foreign action flicks in quite a while.Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / Netflix / iTunes

Die Hard Professor Snape ruins an L.A. Christmas party by taking a host of hostages, one of whom is the beloved wife of NYPD Detective John McClane (a receding, not-yet-bald Bruce Willis). McClane proceeds to resolve the situation with a handful of witty phrases and a healthy dose of gunpowder.Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / iTunes

Enter the Dragon Bruce Lee enters the lair of a drug dealer via the villain’s kung-fu competition. Some of the best fight scenes ever made showcase Lee’s remarkable skill, as well as latissimus dorsi big enough to hang glide. In a particularly awesome fight scene, Henchman O’Hara is the recipient of the angriest foot stomps in cinematic history.Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / iTunes

The Proposition An outlaw in the stark but cinematically beautiful Australian Outback must find and kill his murderous older brother before the military kills his younger brother. Not sure anyone took a shower in this one, ever.Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / iTunes

Commando Colonel Matrix — arguably Arnold’s best character name ever — gets on the war path (surprise!) when his daughter (Alyssa Milano) is kidnapped by an exiled Latin American dictator. Watch for the opening credits. Watch for the glam rock closing. Watch for the gun store robbery montage and have patience, because it all gets used with glee.Amazon DVD

Ronin A former U.S. intelligence agent tries to track down a mysterious package that is wanted by both the Irish and the Russians. Some of the best chase scenes ever filmed include a vintage Merc turbo-diesel and a rocket propelled grenade.Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / Netflix / iTunes

The Dark Knight The second installment of Nolan’s spectacular Dark Knight trilogy. We find Batman (and the Joker) at their best (and worst), when the Joker has taken the city hostage under his seemingly mindless crime spree. Bruce Wayne’s alter ego rises to the occasion. Alfred remains as dryly witty as ever.Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / iTunes

True Lies Super-spy by day, boring husband by night Harry Tasker (Ahnahld!) has to stop a cadre of terrorists after he and his wife (played by the lovely Jamie Lee Curtis) get nabbed. He kills a lot of people, “but they were all bad”.Amazon DVD / iTunes

The Rock Nicolas Cage is a meek chemist. Sean Connery is awesome. Together, they must break into Alcatraz Prison, the base for a rogue general who threatens San Francisco with nerve gas.Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / iTunes

The Dirty Dozen A rag-tag group of convicted murderers has to be brought into line to carry out a mass assassination of Nazi officers in WWII.Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / iTunes

Ong-Bak – The Thai Warrior When a sacred Buddha statue is stolen, it’s up to a young Thai warrior to track it down. This is the movie that made every male between the ages of 18 and 30 dream of spending an extended period of time at a Southeast Asian Muay Thai training camp (reality check: you train by kicking trees).Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / iTunes

The Eiger Sanction An art professor tries avenge the death of his old friend…because he’s actually a retired assassin. Before he talked to chairs, Clint Eastwood did all his own mountaineering stunts.Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / Netflix / iTunes

Gladiator A revenge story. With gladiators. And Joaquin Phoenix’s sneer. This is one we keep coming back to whenever we need our adrenaline fix.Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / iTunes

Bad Boys Michael Bay gave up a portion of his salary for the movie’s final explosion scene, but that was only the surface of a movie riddled with problems: on-the-fly script writing (Bay famously called the script, “a piece of shit”) and truncated timelines. But out of chaos comes magic — and proof of young Michael Bay’s moviemaking formula. What once was a movie destined for Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz (remake?) eventually laughed, exploded and paraded enough leggy femmes (so easy to forget Téa Leoni) to make its way into modern action movie history. Watcha gonna do? Watch it.Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / iTunes

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid The chemistry between Redford and Newman is beautiful. Butch and Sundance is the measuring stick for any and all buddy movies that will follow, ever.Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / Netflix / iTunes

Shogun Assassin Known in cult circles as Lone Wolf and Cub, Shogun Assassin is a revenge masterpiece. If you’ve ever listened to the Genius GZA album Liquid Swords you will recognize the haunting narration and dialogue immediately. It also makes a cameo in Kill Bill Vol. 2.Amazon DVD / iTunes

12 O’Clock High This is one of the best movies on leading men, and the Navy uses it as a case study for the same. The various leadership styles featured in the film cover a range and give ample fodder for considering the pros and cons of each style.Amazon DVD

Speed We leave our synopsis simply to the words of Howard Payne (Dennis Hopper): “Pop quiz, hotshot. There’s a bomb on a bus. Once the bus goes 50 miles an hour, the bomb is armed. If it drops below 50, it blows up. What do you do? What do you do?” The rest is just tolerating Keanu Reeves and falling for Sandra Bullock. Oh, and that preposterous scene of the bus jumping a bridge.Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / iTunes

Where Eagles Dare I’m going on a mission and I’m going to bring… this 1968 movie about a daring raid on a Nazi castle in which an American general is being held hostage. We like it because it combines elements of the archetypal war, thriller, and action movies.Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / iTunes

The Transporter Jason Statham playing something other than a fast-talking, hit-hitting killer? Never. In the latest expression of his signature role, he plays Frank Martin, an ex-Special Forces operator who now makes a living by moving packages from one place to another in a suped-up BMW. Business is good…until one of his packages moves.Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / iTunes

Under Siege Before there was SEAL team six, there was Casey Ryback, a retired SEAL turned galley cook who become the last line of defense against a group of terrorists set on hijacking the USS Missouri and its payload of Tomahawk missiles. It’s easily Seagal’s best film, both in earnings and in critical acclaim, winning two Academy Award nominations.Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / iTunes

Braveheart At the core of Braveheart’s excellence is a heroic story of love for country and woman (in that order) wrapped in gut-wrenching violence (quite literally). It’s history meets Hollywood, despite the fact that prima nocta has never been used in British history. One can almost forgive Gibson’s modern-day catastrophes when re-watching Braveheart — don’t forget that the man not only acted his way into action movie history, but directed and produced his way to a handful of Academy Awards including Best Director and Picture. Dig deep for that Scottish burr and let the quotes fly. FREEDOM!Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / iTunes

The Fugitive Imagine: you’re a well-respected surgeon in Chicago. Then your wife is murdered. You’re convicted and sentenced to death row. But, on the way to prison, your transport crashes and you escape. Now, while trying to stay a step ahead of a nationwide manhunt, you must avenge your wife’s death and clear your name. This is the plot of The Fugitive. Famous dam jump scene included.Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / iTunes

The Bourne Ultimatum Arguably the best of the Bourne series, Ultimatum is the final part of the epic trilogy that saw Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, a trained killer trying to figure out where he came from while avoiding the murderous folks at the CIA. Note: for those keeping score at home, nefarious CIA is beating good CIA 2-1 on this list.Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / iTunes

The Last of the Mohicans Daniel Day-Lewis — a free spirit raised as a Mohican Indian — finds himself entwined in the French and Indian War and in love with a British officer’s daughter.Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / Netflix / iTunes

Hero Jet Li makes you feel completely inferior as he plays a minor official that manages to protect the life of the powerful ruler Qin by assassinating three powerful political enemies.Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / iTunes

Hard Boiled In classic style, John Woo directs a film that pairs a no-nonsense cop and an undercover agent who try to bust a Hong Kong smuggling ring.Amazon DVD

The Raid: Redemption You’ve never heard of this one? Allow us to introduce you. Set in Jakarta, this movie tells the story of an elite SWAT team sent to take down a notorious drug lord…only to find themselves stranded on the sixth floor of his safe house.Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / iTunes

Taken “I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don’t have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.”Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / iTunes

The Warriors The leader of the most powerful gang in New York calls a midnight summit. As he makes his speech he’s murdered. Blame falls on The Warriors, who must travel through a surreal, futuristic New York to their home turf on Coney Island.Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / iTunes

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly Blondie (the Good), Angel Eyes (the Bad) and Tuco (the Ugly) race to find a lost treasure. In the process, Blondie (Clint Eastwood) smokes a lot of cigars.Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / iTunes

Blackhawk Down Based on a true story, this Ridley Scott film tells the story of the army rangers dropped into Mogadishu to capture the two top lieutenants of a Somali warlord. Unfortunately, several hundred gunmen have other plans, leading to an intense, protracted gun battle.Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / iTunes

Mortal Kombat: The Movie We think we’ve been pretty good about staying away from some of the more ridiculous action movies — Crank, 300, etc. — so allow us this one. Despite anything resembling plot or character development, this game-inspired movie has become a cult classic, inspiring the Halloween costumes of many a young nerd.Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / iTunes

Mission: Impossible III Tom Cruise, aka Ethan Hunt, sets out on an even impossiblier mission than ever before. In objectively the best of the Mission: Impossible series, Cruise is in rare form, and few performances top that of the villainous Philip Seymour Hoffman.Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / iTunes

Das Boot Contrary to our Beatles-inspired preconceptions, it turns out that submarines are not very pleasant places to be. Das Boot illustrates this nicely. It’s the story of a German U-Boat crew in 1942 that cruises around the Atlantic trying to avoid crippling depression and crippling-er Allied depth charges.Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / iTunes

Lethal Weapon Before we hated Mel Gibson, he played Martin Riggs, a suicidal L.A. cop who teams up with Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) to take down a drug-smuggling operation. The original buddy-cop movie? Maybe not, but certainly one of the best.Amazon DVD / Amazon Download / iTunes